Greeting cards have all been sent The Christmas rush is through But I still have one wish to make A special one for you Lyrics from ‘Merry Christmas Darling’ – The Carpenters Yesterday I braved the day after Christmas shopping throngs with the lovely Mrs. Burchett in search of sale priced Christmas ornaments and other half-priced treasures. Actually I found the frenzy at Crate and Barrel to be only slightly less dangerous than the Running of the Bulls in Spain. So I spent a fair amount of time in a nearby Starbucks while she braved the frothing throngs. But I was with her in spirit. My caffinated quiet time gave me an opportunity to reflect on the odd way we celebrate Christmas. The build up to Christmas goes on for weeks and then, before you can file a lawsuit, it is over. We rush pell mell to Christmas Day with intensity that would make Coach Bobby Knight proud. The day itself, like the averageContinue reading...

I have removed this post because I am tired of people spectacularly missing the point. I simply raised the point that we are accountable for our actions as representatives of Christ. I will accept no further comments on this topic. Continue reading...

There has been quite a spirited battle over Christmas this year. Earlier this month I posted a remarkable Christmas story and I have received great feedback. If you missed it…enjoy. If you caught the first post it might be worth a Christmas meditation and reread. To everyone who visits this blog, reads my books, and takes the time to bless me with your comments…Merry Christmas! On December 9th I posted a story about the decision by a Wisconsin elementary school to rewrite the lyrics of “Silent Night” to make it acceptable for the winter program. The unfortunate choice for a new title was “Cold in the Night”. Some things just shouldn’t be done. It is like the old Jim Croce song…”you don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don’t rewrite Silent Night” (New Revised Version). Writing that post brought to mind a legend I had heard involving the songContinue reading...

Hopefully the secularists and people of faith can sheath their subpoenas long enough to declare a truce for Christmas Day. No day of the year has generated more written material than Christmas. I thought I would collect a few thoughts from people with bigger brains than me to share as a Christmas gift to you. Those who know me realize that I must start with humorous thoughts on the day. The first comes from one of the greatest comic strips ever produced. Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special! How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food, and beer…. Who’d have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment, and spirituality would mix so harmoniously? ~ Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes There is a remarkable breakdown of taste and intelligence at Christmastime. Mature, responsible grown men wear neckties made of holly leaves and drink alcoholic beverages with raw egg yolks and cottage cheese in them. ~P.J. O’Rourke ChristmasContinue reading...

The “Walk On Eggshells Union” (WOE-U) has been busy rewriting Christmas songs to make sure that no one could possibly be offended. Silent Night went from holy night to winter night after a New Jersey elementary school got involved. They changed the lyric to make the Christmas carol more “acceptable” to an apparently hypersensitive audience. Perhaps we will soon be going to hear the local orchestra deliver the stirring holiday rendition of Handel’s “The Promised and Expected Deliverer Described in Some Religious Texts”, the composition formerly known as “The Messiah”. While there have been denials everywhere that there is any “war” on Christmas it does seem that there is, at the very least, some politically correct police actions going on. So I decided to ask the question, “What would Saint Nicholas Do”? After all, the fourth-century bishop of Myra (present-day Turkey) was the role model for our present day Santa Clause. Saint Nicholas is said to have saved a poor family’s daughters from slavery by tossing some gold through the window that landed, according to legend, in stockings that had been hung upContinue reading...

Today’s Dallas Morning News was a little tiptoe through a minefield of bad news and bad behavior. Dateline Houston… The pastor of the nation’s largest church and his family were asked to leave a plane after his wife failed to comply with a flight attendant’s instructions, the FBI said Tuesday. Houston Lakewood Church pastor Joel Osteen, his wife Victoria Osteen, and their two children boarded a flight from Houston to Vail, Colo., Monday. The plane’s door had been closed when Victoria Osteen and a flight attendant had a disagreement. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know how justified Mrs. Osteen was to be unhappy with the service from the flight attendants. I don’t know what kind of attitude the flight attendant displayed toward the Osteens. I do know that this unfortunate act will be the fodder of jokes and ridicule and demeaning of Christianity, and by extension, of Christ. When we take the awesome responsibility of calling ourselves Christians weContinue reading...

One of my contributions with this modest little blog is to continually ask the tough questions. Recently I listened to “Away in a Manger” at a Christmas program. You likely know verse three of the song. The cattle are lowingThe poor Baby wakesBut little Lord JesusNo crying He makes As I listened an important series of inquiries popped into my head. What noise were the cattle making when they started lowing? Was this normal cow talk? Did lowing just sound better than mooing in the lyric? And then the most important question came to mind…what is wrong with me? I can’t answer the last question but I can help with the others. Lowing is in fact defined as… The characteristic sound uttered by cattle; a moo. – dictionary.com So Jesus was awakened by the characteristic sound uttered by a cow. The next part of the lyric is disturbing to those of us who are parents. If any of the babies who grewContinue reading...